It’s Christmas time, but the Cosgrove family aren’t having a very merry one.
The family has fallen on tough times and jobs are hard to come by. After hearing about a robbery gone awry, they amuse themselves by imagining robbing one of the neighbours. Farmer Charlie Bann is bound to have money, sure, and he’d be an easy one to knock off, surely… Fuelled by Christmas spirit and desperation, the sons decide to follow through on their scheme, dragging the rest of the Cosgroves with them.
Director Dallan Shovlin makes his feature debut with this delightfully dark comedy, smartly melding the thrilling mechanics of a heist film with a keen social sense of contemporary Ireland. The film never forgets the stark economic realities forcing the Cosgrove family into delinquency. The family is brought to life by an all-star cast of Irish talent, featuring Michelle Fairley and Ardal O’Hanlon as the matriarch and patriarch respectively, with Jacob McCarthy, Ruth Codd and Peter Claffey as their children. The elusive and reclusive Charlie Bann is portrayed by this year’s Réalta Award winner Stephen Rea.